your body is a wonderland

I’d never heard of The Book Group, which is apparently a British show about, well, a book group. The second episode features a nice moment with an actress who presumably would be considered OMG FAT by the standards of American television, but is allowed to be sexy in Britain!

You can see her at around the 6:40 mark in the shot below. She’s beautiful, as you’ll see. Also, there’s a shot panning slowly down her body, she’s shown as she walks away, she’s covered in drops of water… the whole thing. (And incidentally, she also mentions just having swum 50 laps.) Here’s the episode clip:

H (who sent me the link) said that at first she was waiting for a joke based on the actress’s size, then for some kind of self-congratulatory meta-reference about how open-minded they’re being, but there was nothing. She gets to be a hot chick, no strings attached.

H also says the show is worth watching, and as a lover of books, book groups, and British television… sign me up! Thanks, H.

I don’t mean to rain on the parade, but I do wonder if that sexiness wasn’t made possible because she was flirting with a fairly average looking man–and specifically a man using a wheelchair (and she does it just after having just made an ableist comment to him about how reading’s bad for one’s ass.)

I did like the dismissive answer Dirka gave to her partner’s complaint about how eating would make her fat.

Though again, that conversation was made in the context of her earlier masturbation while the guy slept, which I *wanted* to read as liberatory (because hey, it’s rare to see that), but which made me wonder whether we were supposed to read her as sexually unsatisfied because her partner was uninterested in her. TV’s sort of notorious about conflating all women’s appetites as problematic for men except when they’re directed *at* men and for his pleasure and not hers, and having her eat in bed after masturbating seemed like just another example of that. Though I’m not sure if they’re presuming an audience who would be critical of him in a feminist way or not.

Still, UK TV is ahead of us just in showing a diversity of bodies and people of various classes and parts of life, which puts it ahead of American TV.

Yeah, it is still MILES ahead of us. She is gorgeous, and the looks on the guys’ faces are priceless! Here, if she was even “allowed” on TV, it’d be as the fat friend trying to lose weight for her wedding gig (as maid of honor)/reunion/blind date. And, of course, she’d live alone with her 27 cats.

I’m British and I used to watch this show regularly (I’m now in the US), I think this is an old episode actually, I’m not sure the show is on anymore.

I don’t feel qualified or prepared to get into the political analysis, but to give a little context on how I think most people in the UK would read this, and how I think it might be intended…

First, I don’t think that her attractiveness is made ok by or is dependent on his averageness, because I don’t think he’s portrayed as average looking in the show! Maybe tastes or standards are different in the US, but I think that he’s intended to be seen as a very physically attractive man who’s unaware of how attractive women find him and who lacks confidence (partly because of his disability, partly it’s just his personality). Her weight does matter to the scene though, I think it’s intended as a sign of her extreme sexual and physical confidence.

On the ice cream – while maybe there are problems with this portrayal, what I get from that scene (and those characters in general), is that the husband is boring, immature, and obsessed with the sport he plays, and he isn’t interested in really interacting with his wife or having her be anything more than a trophy. Throughout the show he’s not a main character, and is played for laughs, while she is a central and positive character who grows. Through the book group she’s becoming more confident and getting to know herself, and is sick of putting up with him. So she is unsatisfied, but she’s also getting to know herself, and starting to prioritize doing what she wants.

Weight and body standards are different in the UK and the US I think. There’s a lot (A LOT) of diet talk and pressure in the UK, but I think there’s more space for fat women to be widely recognized as attractive. I certainly never felt de-sexualized in the UK the way I do here.

Miriam – I can’t see the clip above and I can’t remember the scene in question, but I watched the Book Group when it was on a few years ago and if I recall correctly the guy in the wheelchair was meant in the context of the programme to be the most attractive male member of the cast (I certainly fancied him).

From watching the entire season (just I could comment on this one scene — ok so I tend to go overboard) I’m sure that she is considered to be very attractive and sexy and not in spite of her size but possibly because of her size. She is womanly, strong, self confident and that kind of sex appeal comes in many shapes and sizes.

And yeah, the guy in the wheelchair, definitely the hunk of the cast. I certainly fancy him!

I am shocked. I went directly to the mark to watch the scene and fully expected something negative to happen, whether through body language or spoken, in regards to her weight. Even after what was said in the post. Speaks volumes about American TV, doesn’t it? How we’ve been groomed to expect fat jokes, raised eyebrows, canned laughter, etc., towards someone’s weight.

Loved this! Let’s hope there will be more of these types of scenes in the UK and especially the US. It’s about time that sexy plus women are depicted on TV and movies and such, and not be depicted as someone to be pitied, as is usually the case unfortunately.

This is fantastic. On an NYT blog yesterday somebody suggested that obese people should be rounded up and required to “centers” for weight loss (it could take up to 3 years, she noted). I about threw in the towel on society when I read that. This UK clip gives me hope that there may still be some sanity in the world.

Dude.. when I graduated high school, I actually quit theatre and acting because I was sick of being cast as “the ugly girl”, “the old lady” and “the fat chick”. I always wanted to play the hot chick. I am so happy to see this.

I saw the Book Group at the time but can’t remember anyone fat on it (and can’t see the clip to check it out). All the lead female characters were very slim though, weren’t they? The US does occasionally show gorgeous ‘larger’ women. One of the things I loved about Carnivale was that not only it wasn’t scared of having larger women as main characters but it absolutely revelled in their curves. Those women were allowed to look so voluptuous and sexy…

I’ve caught a few episodes of “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” lately, and I find it interesting that several of the cast members are obviously obese, but in the episodes I’ve seen, their size hasn’t been an issue or a source for (crude) jokes. Is that because it’s more acceptable for black people to be fat and it is for white people? (I have no idea; I’m just curious, ’cause the show doesn’t seem to be getting flack about the fatness of its cast, so I didn’t know if that was a race thing or what. And if this is a totally ignorant question, I’m so sorry!!)

I’ve caught a few episodes of “Tyler Perry’s House of Payne” lately, and I find it interesting that several of the cast members are obviously obese, but in the episodes I’ve seen, their size hasn’t been an issue or a source for (crude) jokes. Is that because it’s more acceptable for black people to be fat and it is for white people? (I have no idea; I’m just curious, ’cause the show doesn’t seem to be getting flack about the fatness of its cast, so I didn’t know if that was a race thing or what. And if this is a totally ignorant question, I’m so sorry!!)

No, it isn’t in the context of the standard of beauty we have. Black bodies are already seen as lesser, simply because we are not white. Read up on the Mammy stereotype. The ugly fat black woman has already been created, and has been used for CENTURIES.